I plan to upgrade both the Operating System and Board Software during the Christmas holidays. There has been a major upgrade to the phpBB software we use to operate The Board and it is time we moved to it. With this major upgrade, I am hoping to refresh the look of the site a bit.

So there may be some up and down time but I will try to minimize it. But if I have a bit too much Christmas cheer to drink, there might be a hiccup or two.

Well the basic upgrade of The Board has happened and it looks OK from here. There is no customization yet so we will have to wait for that. The default style looks a bit fresher to me. For sure, we could use a replacement for for something that is more appropriate.

Well Spooky and I have confirmed one thing -- the user uploaded avatars do not appear to have been automatically transferred as part of the upgrade. The easiest option is to upload the Avatar again via the User Control Panel > Edit Avatar menu. If you don't have your avatar image anymore, the old ones are still accessible but you will have to describe it so we can email it to you.

Looks good! Nice upgrade Spooks. I'm sure a few people will grumble. Pay them no mind. The only minor complaint I would have is the placement of the posters' names/info on the right. I suppose I'll get used to it, but it feels a little strange.

Blimey O'Reilly! Lots of differences. Now it's even quicker to sort out 'total number of posts descending'! (Which, needless to say, I study intently on a daily basis.) Was disturbed to lose my avatar, but it was time for an upgrade. Well done - good Christmas gift to us all I like the post preview option.

Foes are users which will be ignored by default. Posts by these users will not be fully visible. Personal messages from foes are still permitted. Please note that you cannot ignore moderators or administrators.

There are definitely a LOT of new features. The attachments feature should be handy. There is also some chat capability which I need to look into. I noticed there is a check for size limits on signature images. I will be slowly investigating the new features.

Very snazzy - well done! The search function doesn't seem to be as thorough as before. Looking for the 'day after Christmas' thread I put in 'Irn Bru' and got nothing. Luckily I had only recently got it for the 'seasonal songs' thread so got it via that.

There was a little time after the upgrade where we didn't have the search index rebuilt. Try your search again and let me know. Maybe I haven't clicked the right boxes. *

<sigh> I was also planning an operating system upgrade for this week but the server only has a CD-RW drive and Fedora Linux now comes on DVD. So until I either download an burn a set of upgrade CDs or buy a DVD for the server, the operating system upgrade is on hold.

I don't quite get the thread icons, though. I thought I saw a pattern between red ones, black ones with moving text with/without star, black ones with static text, etc., but then on closer inspection the pattern was repeatedly contradicted. Can't see a guide in the FAQs. Is there a simple explanation?